Raid on governor's office in Iraq's Diyala province sparks outrage
A university dean and a lawmaker, both Sunnis, are arrested by elite counter-terrorism troops, and a government employee is killed. Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's office denies deploying them.
BAGHDAD — Predawn raids by elite Iraqi forces today resulted in the fatal shooting of a government employee and the arrest of two prominent Sunni Arab Muslims, witnesses and officials said.
The troops were from the central government's counter-terrorism units, said Gov. Raad Tamimi of Diyala province, where the raid took place. The forces stormed the governorate building in the city of Baqubah and arrested Sunni provincial council member Hussein Zubaidi, who belongs to the Iraqi Islamic Party.
Another raid led to the arrest of a prominent Sunni university dean.
Controversy swirled over who deployed the troops. The unit, special forces referred to by detractors as the dirty squad, reports to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's counter-terrorism office. Spokesmen for Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, and the Defense Ministry said the prime minister had not ordered the raids.
"These special forces work with the Americans. They are not associated with the Ministry of Defense," ministry spokesman Mohammed Askari said. "They have goals, and they didn't inform anyone else."
The special forces, long considered the most effective Iraqi military unit in the country, generally operate with U.S. military advisors and have been sent on missions targeting the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq as well as the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia.
The U.S. military denied involvement in the operation.
The special forces transferred to Iraqi control in 2007 after working for years with near-independence under the guidance of the Americans. Last spring, the group's commander, Fadil Barwari, an ethnic Kurd, was brought before parliament's national security committee, where members complained about the group's rough tactics, several lawmakers have told The Times.
The head of Iraq's national media center, Ali Hadi, denied that Maliki ordered the raid and said the prime minister had called for an investigation. The interior and defense ministers were sent to gather facts, Hadi said.
Witnesses said that more than 50 soldiers stormed the compound and rousted council members from their beds. The troops roughed up people, they said. The governor said they shot to death his secretary, Abbas Ali Hamood.
Hamood had asked the soldiers to identify themselves and to behave, and the troops then opened fire on him, said a building security officer who identified himself as Capt. Saad.
